


Untitled Avvar AU

by jellysharkbat



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avvar, Avvar Cullen Rutherford, F/M, Not Beta'd, Thane Cullen is confident or arrogant, based off of some artwork, copious use of the word lowlander, it's amazing seriously guys, or Both
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-05
Updated: 2019-11-05
Packaged: 2021-01-23 20:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21326197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jellysharkbat/pseuds/jellysharkbat
Summary: When she had first been brought before him, he couldn’t say he was impressed with this lowlander ‘Inquisitor’.AKA Thane Cullen has made some mistakes.
Relationships: Cullen Rutherford/Piper Lavellan, Female Inquisitor/Cullen Rutherford, Female Lavellan/Cullen Rutherford, Piperford - Relationship
Comments: 3
Kudos: 44





	Untitled Avvar AU

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Avvar!Cullen](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/532075) by Schoute. 

> This was inspired by a multiple discussions between me and Schoute. Well, I say discussions. We're just super thirsty for avvar!Cullen and Schoute made beautiful art and I had to word vomit all over it. Think of this as a companion piece to Schoute's tumblr post (go check it out- link has been included here!). Hope you like this, friend!

When she had first been brought before him, he couldn’t say he was impressed with this lowlander ‘Inquisitor’ and her associates. She was scrawny, defiant, and expected him to bow to her whims without earning any such honors, all for the sake of her Inquisition. The rest of her compatriots were no better. One of them even scorned the ways of the Avvar loudly enough to be heard.

Impetuous creatures.

They knew nothing of the Avvar, or him. That this _Inquisitor_ assumed he would be concerned with what the lowlanders did was foolish. They were safe, here in the Frostback Mountains. This was their home, this was where the Gods spoke to them, and cared for them as they did for the Gods in turn. 

They had no need of lowlander propaganda.

Oh, he’d taken notice of the fighting in the lowlands. It’d be stupid not to, but lowlanders were always coming up with reasons to wage war with each other. And it seemed to him that they loved pulling others into their wars. It was petty, as they tended to be, and he would not lead his people to their own doom.

He couldn’t deny the satisfaction that welled within him when he dismissed her. The outrage that he saw on her face was well worth the rudeness, but then again, as he had told her, if she was to be rude, then so could he.

He ordered his fellow warriors to throw the lowlander and her ilk out, and assumed that the matter had been dealt with.

That was his first mistake. 

She did not go so easily. She risked his people’s swords and arrows to speak with him again, demanding audience. When he didn’t grant it, she stubbornly remained and apparently cursed his name fiercely. Or so some of his warriors claimed.

It was after consulting with the Augur that he decided to meet with her a second time. This time she was alone, none of her companions to be seen. She’d sent them back, she said, that she was to remain until he changed his mind.

He scoffed at that. But the fire in her eyes convinced him to let her stay, as she wished. She hadn’t been expecting him to give in on that so easily, he could tell, and he hid a smile behind his hand. He’d caught her off guard.

Stay, and learn something of the Avvar, and then perhaps they would discuss her Inquisition at another time, he’d told her.

That irritated her some. She tried to hide her displeasure, but not quick enough. But the lowlander put on a smile and _curtseyed_ as some of the more outlandish lowlander traders did. He got the feeling that it was meant to mock him, but he wasn’t sure. He decided not to comment on it, and instead watched as she left his throne room. 

She was not weak-willed, this lowlander.

Good. He always did prefer women who didn’t give up easily.

That thought would end up being his second mistake.

The third came after the lowlander barged into a meeting he was having with some of his tribespeople. In her defense, it appeared that she hadn’t been aware that there would be other people present, and tried to backtrack her way out of the room. But he decided to allow her into the discussion.

A young dragon had been spotted, and one of the fishermen raised concerns that it was getting too close to the Hold. It would need to be dealt with. Perhaps, since the lowlander was so keen to join in, she would have ideas on how to dispatch them of this problem?

When he asked, he hadn’t expected her to announce that she would take care of the creature herself. In return, they _would_ be sitting down and they _would_ discuss Inquisition matters, like she originally wanted when she came to the Hold.

Like a fool, he agreed, taken in by her sudden passion.

Amusement, he later told himself. She amused him in her defiance. That was all. And he was not so cruel to send her against a dragon, even a juvenile, on her own. That was why he ordered some of his more skilled warriors to join her. Even he couldn’t send a woman to her death for no reason. That was all.

The fact that she refused to go, the fact that he allowed her to stay meant nothing. It had absolutely nothing to do with the way her eyes lit up at a challenge or how they narrowed like daggers in her displeasure.

And none of it had to do with his own dreams at night, where their confrontations turn a much more...lusty turn. He wasn’t blind, after all. She was attractive for a lowlander, and her lithe form and fierce personality were a tempting combination. In his dreams he was free from his own his self-restraint; free to rip her flimsy clothing off of her body and press her against him; free to claim that sassy mouth with his own; free to pull on her thick hair and expose that delicate throat to his hungry mouth; free to lift her onto his throne where he’d-

No. _No_. This was _nothing_. She was nothing more than a bothersome lowlander who refused to leave.

And yet. And yet…

Days later, he heard the news: the dragon had been slain. The lowlander and his warriors had fought hard and well enough to make Hakkon Wintersbreath proud.

While the news was welcome, for some reason, he couldn’t help but imagine would the lowlander must have looked like in the midst of battle. He was sorry he missed it.

And that was his final mistake.

He was grateful that he’d been alone in his own dwelling, when he realized his follies. He allowed himself to become interested in the lowlander, to find her attractive, to wonder what might happen between them, _to trust her with the defense of his people_-

Even though he technically owed her a meeting, he spent the next several days avoiding her. He needed to reflect, needed time to ask the Gods what his mistakes would mean for the future. What would happen if he allowed these mistakes to continue? What would it mean for him?

_Change_, the Augur whispered. _It would mean change._ Things would be different from herein out, for him and the Hold. The lowlander was sweeping everyone into her world, whether they meant for it to happen or not. He was just one more man who’d been bewitched by her.

Even so, that did not mean that it was one-sided. All mountains had more than one face. If he had been taken in by her, perhaps the same could be true in turn. While he didn’t usually admit his own virtues, he knew that he was nothing to laugh at. He was strong, proud, and a dutiful warrior and Thane to his people. 

This alliance could be end up being mutually beneficial in more ways than one.

It was with that thought in mind that he went to his throne room at last, letting the word get out of his whereabouts, and waited for the Inquisitor to meet with him once again.


End file.
